musings and meditations from an ordinary husband, father, and pastor seeking to follow Christ

slowhand on prayer

I thought this post on Eric Clapton and prayer was a good piece about how to think “Christianly” about prayer. Prayer is a Christ-centered thing, not a vague utterance to a “higher power.” We need to be encouraged by something like this but at the same time recognize it is not Christian prayer or Christianity. Now, read the post by Ray Ortlund, Jr.:

When Eric Clapton hit bottom, he instinctively reached out for something beyond himself:

“At that moment, almost of their own accord, my legs gave way and I fell to my knees. In the privacy of my room I begged for help. I had no notion who I thought I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether, I had nothing left to fight with. Then I remembered what I had heard about surrender, something I thought I could never do, my pride just wouldn’t allow it, but I knew that on my own I wasn’t going to make it, so I asked for help, and, getting down on my knees, I surrendered.

Within a few days I realized that something had happened for me. An atheist would probably say it was just a change of attitude, and to a certain extent that’s true, but there was much more to it than that. I had found a place to turn to, a place I’d always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day until this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express gratitude for my life and, most of all, for my sobriety. I choose to kneel because I feel I need to humble myself when I pray, and with my ego, this is the most I can do.”

To me, this is touching, and I mean that respectfully. And his prayers are humbler than some of mine, I am certain. And in a way, I could wish that a breakthrough to God could be this vague and yet still somehow conclusive.

But what God gives to us broken sinners is better. God gives a clear sight of Jesus through the gospel: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

It is one thing to despair of ourselves. We must. But it is something further to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. Startlingly honest experiences can help us. But only a miraculous sight of Jesus can transform us.